In the medical art, there is a rapidly and increasing provision and use of implant devices, including artificial or mechanical hearts and certain other organs; monitoring devices such as "heart pacers"; medication supply devices; and, a multitude of different orthopedic devices, such as intermedullary nails, artificial joints and the like.
The majority of implant devices are specially designed devices built of special and oftentimes exotic materials to the highest standards. Further, due to the great responsibility and potential economic liabilities that attach to the design, manufacture and use of such devices, the designers and manufacturers thereof, as a rule, establish very specific and exact specifications with respect to the limitations and capabilities of the devices and with respect to those procedures that must be followed preparatory to their being put to use; when they are in use; and when they are taken out of us.
The physicians and technicians that work with and put such implant devices to their intended uses are confronted with similar and great responsibilities and economic liabilities. Accordingly, it is becoming a well-established rule, that physicians and technicians follow, as closely as possible, the specifications established by the manufacturers of the devices they work with and make and keep exacting records of all that they do in the course of using those devices.
Collateral to the above, in the medical art, for numerous reasons, not the least of which is the potential liability that is attached to the activities of physicians and surgeons, there is an ever-increasing provision and use of "single use" or "disposable" medical and surgical implant tools and/or devices.
It is fast becoming and will soon be common practice that all surgical tools, implements and devices, for each surgical procedure or event, will be supplied and presented to the surgeon and/or a surgical team in sealed, sterile envelopes or packages; used during that procedure and thereafter disposed of.
Today, an extremely large percentage of medical and surgical implements, tools and devices are offered in "single use" or "disposable" form and an ever-increasing number of physicians and surgeons now make specific inquiry as to whether or not specific instruments heretofore available in "multi-use form" are available in "single use" or "disposable" form.
In the above-noted art, the majority of implant devices include or require the use of screw fasteners or similar parts that must be turned or torqued by means of screwdrivers and similar tools. In the course of turning or torquing many of the screw fasteners and the like, it is necessary or prudent that a torque-limiting or torque-indicating type of screwdriver tool be employed and that the torque to which the fasteners or fastener-like parts are subjected be limited and that the torque applied be noted and made record of. As a result of the above, torque screwdrivers such as ratchet or click-type torque-limiting screwdrivers and dial-type torque-indicating screwdrivers are becoming standard surgical instruments. Further, for various practical reasons, it is necessary that those torque-limiting screwdrivers that are used by such that they can be easily, quickly and accurately tested and, if necessary, be adjusted in the course of the surgical procedures in which they are used.
In accordance with the above-noted use and demand for "single use" medical instruments, tools and devices, at least one manufacturer or torque tools, Consolidated Devices, Inc. in the city of Industry, California, now produces and sells a "single use" disposable torque-limiting screwdriver. That screwdriver is such that it can, with the use of a suitable torque tool tester, be tested for accuracy and can be easily and quickly adjusted to operate under any desired magnitude of force, within a rather broad range of operating forces.
The existence of a "single use" disposable torque screwdriver for surgical use, such as is referred to above, has given rise to the want and need of a "single use" or disposable torque tool or torque screwdriver tester that is suitable for both testing and for adjusting those screwdrivers during those surgical procedures in which they are used.